Computer science and engg is still most popular choice at IITs

MUMBAI: A degree in computer science and engineering has once again topped the list of courses which received maximum applications this year - 3.18 lakh. IITBombay

MUMBAI: A degree in computer science and engineering has once again topped the list of courses which received maximum applications this year - 3.18 lakh. IITBombay received 17,343 applications for 110 seats. There were 17,071 applicants for 55 seats for the course at IIT-Kharagpur, IITRoorkee received 16,617 applications for 75 seats.

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“Computer science and engineering has been the popular course among IIT aspirants for quite some years now and this is because of the growing job opportunities in this field. Students have realised its importance and followed the same trend,” said Devang Khakkar, IIT-Bombay director. He added that the increasing demand has also pushed IITs to seek an increase in the number of seats offered under the course. “In the future we are looking towards building better infrastructure and facilities on campus, and will definitely increase the seats offered under Computer Science and Engineering,” he added.

According to information shared by the Joint Seat Allocation Authority (JoSAA) this year, the second-most popular course is mechanical engineering with 2.94 lakh applications, followed by electrical engineering with 2.80 lakh applications and civil engineering with 2.05 lakh applications. “We are hoping that candidates have not just looked at the brand name of the institute but paid attention to the course that they are more interested in, as this will reflect in their performance in the first year itself,” said a senior official from JoSAA 2016.

Even though not a single of the top 100 JEE-Adv rankers made way into the oldest institute — IIT-Kharagpur, the institute did receive 1.83 lakh applications which was the highest applications received by an institute this year. This was followed by IIT-Varanasi with 1.15 lakh applications and IIT-Madras with a little over 1 lakh applications. IIT-B received 73,728 applications this year. “The number of applications is higher for institutes that have a high number of seats to offer. Students also opt for institutes based on their placement records,” said a professor from IIT-B.